Secondaries
Sunset paced about the NAHTI, ears flattened. "Oh, this is bad. This is very bad."
"I'm sorry," said Rainbow Dash, "I can't hear you over the sound of always being able to fly." She leaned back, hovering near the ceiling.
Twilight glared up at her. "Oh, now you're just mocking me."
"No need to take it personally, Twilight," said Mr. Discord. "I'd say she's more mocking gravity. Generally a bad idea, though I must admit, she's in a good position to do so."
Sunset grabbed two handfuls of her hair and pulled. "Can we please focus on the impending cosmic annihilation?"
Twilight whirled to face her. "Cosmic what!?"
"Oh." Mr. Discord's faint smile dropped to a wide-eyed look of horror. "I believe I understand. If this isn't some undiscovered aspect of conventional reality but an intrusion on a previously established order..." He hissed through his teeth. "Yes, I do believe a bad time is in store for anything more complex than a fundamental particle."
"How do we fix this?" Twilight grabbed Sunset by the forearms and started shaking her. "You're the magic expert! Tell us how to fix this!"
Applejack put a hand on Twilight's shoulder. "You ain't gonna get any answers like that, sugarcube."
"We're here to determine how to fix this," added Rarity. She looked to Sunset. "Er, we can determine how to fix this, yes? Especially since we should now have that constant magical output you wanted."
Sunset took a moment to steady herself, then nodded. "Yeah. Now that we aren't blowing out the sensors, gathering data on our magical signatures should be easy. Given that hard data and estimates of the earlier surges, I should be able to determine just how quickly our magic is growing."
"With just one concrete data point?" Twilight adjusted her glasses and shook her head. "I don't even want to think about the margin of error for that."
"Do you have anything to offer?" said Sunset.
Twilight smiled. "As it so happens, yes." She pulled a flash drive out of one of her lab coat's pockets. "I wasn't able to get much from the first incident, but I documented the second one with everything from seismographs to satellite footage."
Rarity raised a finger. "And how exactly did you—"
"Crystal Prep has very good facilities," said Twilight. "Let's leave it at that."
Dash jolted, nearly falling. "Wait, you go to Crystal Prep?"
Applejack sighed. "Rainbow, we got bigger things t' worry about than a school rivalry."
"I know that. I just figured she already had, like, three degrees."
Twilight tried to hide her blushing face behind a clipboard. "My family thinks I need more social interaction."
Sunset put an arm around her shoulders. "I think helping save the world counts."
"Yeah! Let's get started!" Pinkie beamed, a smiley face of electrodes adorning her temples and chin. A noisemaker sounded, and she held up a finger as she dug through her hair. "Hang on, I got a text."
"Uh..." Twilight glanced at her notes. "Pinkie Pie, is now really the time to—"
"Whoa." Pinkie shook her head like a wet dog, dislodging the electrodes. "Girls, I need to handle this."
"Pinkie, darling," said Rarity, "we are in the middle of something rather important. Can't this wait?"
Pinkie held up her phone. "Ditzy Doo says she knows what just broke the universe."
Dash snorted. "What, did she sit on it?"
"She also said that she grew wings."
Dash's wings locked up. She thudded to the ground rump first. "Derpy's airborne!?"
Fluttershy glowered at her, her own wings ruffling. "Rainbow Dash, that's not nice."
"Shy, this is Derpy Feet we're talking about! The girl who trips so hard she knocks her own shoes off!"
"That only happened once," said Fluttershy.
Dash got back to her feet, her wings flared. "Right, that's it. We gotta fix this before that girl really does sit on the universe. Pinkie, where..." She trailed off as she noted the marked absence of pink people in the immediate area. "Okay, where's Pinkie Pie?"
No one was able to answer the question. Sunset sighed. "Wherever she's gone, we have tests to run, and that includes Twilight and me."
Twilight looked around the room, in case there were any other Twilights available. "Me? Why?"
Sunset smiled. "Really, we should've been testing you from the beginning. I mean, what's an experiment without a control?"
Pinkie walked forward, keeping her eyes shut. She could've just asked Sunset or Applejack for a ride, but something told her there was a faster way to the park. Some instinct tugged her onward. For a moment, even with her eyes closed, she perceived a wide vista of rolling hills formed from strands of light, her feet taking her across the pinkest path. She thought she saw an oddly familiar horse and a boy with eyes even bluer than hers, but a familiar snatch of song grabbed her attention before she could get more than a glimpse of either.
"You better believe I got tricks up my—"
At which point, Pinkie fell out of Trixie's hat.
Pinkie took in the scene as she tried to disentangle herself. They were in the gazebo in the town park, with a few dozen classmates watching while sitting on the ground or on picnic tables. Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were sitting at a folding table directly in front of the gazebo.
"What do you think you're doing, you crazed lump of bubblegum!?" And Trixie had apparently managed to get to her feet, her costume from the Battle of the Bands final rather askew.
Pinkie bolted up, dusted herself off, and waved a finger. "Okay, first of all, I am clearly a deranged puff of cotton candy. Secondlyyyy..." She staggered backwards. Lavender Lace caught her before she fell again. "Okay, not going to do that again any time soon. Thanks," she added to the blonde behind her.
"Pinkie!" Ditzy Doo raced towards the stage.
Trixie glared at her. "Trixie presumes you are somehow responsible for this."
"I asked her to come here," said Ditzy. "I didn't expect her to arrive through your hat."
Trixie narrowed her eyes. "We will have words, Ditzy Doo. For now, get this buffoon off of Trixie's stage."
Ditzy gave Trixie a flat stare. "Truly, your compassion knows no bounds."
Trixie turned away with a huff. "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit."
"I thought that was 'your mom' jokes," Pinkie said woozily.
Ditzy put a hand to her chin. "I'm pretty sure that those fall under the minimum threshold to qualify as wit."
"GET OFF MY STAGE!"
Mr. Discord sat in a computer chair, sighed, and rested his chin on a fist. "When I was a little younger than all of you, the Jewelry Master trilogy was still fresh and new, not the cliche fantasy blueprint it's become since. I read it voraciously and... well, I always sympathized most with one of the villains. Not Black Enemy himself, but Clear Cut the White. A force of progress and vision who just happened to have a slight dearth in the sanity department.
"Unfortunately, wizardry wasn't a viable career path, so I went with what seemed like the next best thing. Alas, science isn't all moon shots and test detonations. I had to accept that my dreams were just that, dreams, no more yielding than a midsummer night. Then I built a career around that sobering realization, around explaining that these are the rules we have to work with and while wishing for a different set can be fun, it's ultimately pointless.
"Then the Fall Formal came and went, Fluttershy was gushing about her old friendships and new abilities, and my inner child was cheering along even as my outer adult was looking for nits to pick." Mr. Discord sighed. "Your exploits presented me with an interesting dilemma, girls: My heart wanted to believe, but my head was worried about my book sales.
"But I can recognize my own irrationality, even when it's caused by insisting on what seems to be a rational universe. The evidence is plain before my eyes, and I am more than willing to aid you whatever way I can."
Fluttershy smiled. "That's very nice to hear, Mr. Discord."
"Thank you, Fluttershy. Now..." Mr. Discord trailed off as he realized that she was the only one who was paying him any attention. The others were already well underway in collecting new data. He grit his teeth and threw up his arms. "Seriously!? I pour my heart out and you people don't even have the decency to listen?"
Rainbow Dash shrugged, her wings rising in synch with her shoulders. "Yeah, Twilight kinda already did that."
"She got over it a heck of a lot quicker, though," said Applejack.
"Excuse me for taking a bit of time to process decades of work getting turned on its head!"
Twilight considered the exchange as it continued. "Do you think we should get data from Mr. Discord?"
Sunset shuddered. "Definitely not. According to what I learned back in Equestria, Mr. Discord's analogue has very different, very dangerous magic. We're risking the universe through excess harmony. Adding actual disharmony magic?" She shook her head. "Not on my watch."
By the time they reached the picnic table where Blue Oyster and Raspberry Fluff were waiting, Ditzy was half-carrying, half-dragging Pinkie. When Pinkie sat down, she couldn't even hold her head up.
After a few minutes, her hair had stopped hurting, she was able to sit up straight, and she asked, "Okay, so what's the story here?"
Ditzy took a deep breath from next to Pinkie. "Okay, so this needs something of a prelude. You've probably noticed we're carrying out the original Musical Showcase plan."
"Yuh-huh." Pinkie smiled, though not as widely as usual. "Did you guys play?"
Raspberry nodded on the other side of the table. "We were one of the early acts."
Next to her, Blue crossed her arms and glared off to the side.
Ditzy rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me you're still sore over how badly we did in the Battle of the Bands. You even got ears this time."
Blue slammed the table with a fist. "Half-Baked was an avant-garde tour de force!"
"Most of the school doesn't take Prench," said Pinkie. "Maybe that was your problem."
"And I thought we were the Quantum Mechanics." The others looked at Ditzy with a variety of uncomprehending expressions. "You know, because no one understands us?"
Blue went back to her scowl. "We never should've lost to those earsores!"
"Well, I thought it was funny..."
Raspberry tilted her head back. "Is 'earsore' even a word?"
"I think we're getting off topic." Pinkie blinked. "And if I'm saying that, then it must be really bad."
Ditzy nodded. "You're right. So, as Razz said, we were one of the first acts. After that, we had time to kill, so she and I started playing a round of Hocus Pocus: the Get-Together. Apparently, I get wings and ears when I win card games."
"At which point," said Blue, "these two decided to make their own episode of Yugi-Hime!" She groaned. "I said it then, I'll say it now: Neither of you is ever allowed to watch any anime again. Ever."
Pinkie scratched her head. "So, what does that have to do with why my new ears aren't going away?"
"Flash Drive was on stage," said Ditzy.
Pinkie blinked. "'Save Them Whales' was so bad that it broke the universe?"
Ditzy shook her head. "Firstly, they played a new song. I'm blanking on the title..."
"'Evil Seahorses Made Me Hurt You,'" said Raspberry.
Ditzy winced. "Right. I may have blocked it from conscious memory out of self-defense."
"I know I did," said Blue.
Raspberry pouted. "I thought it was sweet." After a moment she added, "Well, the sentiment was, at least."
Blue rolled her eyes despite her smile. "Anyway, while these two were hamming it up, I was watching the performances."
"If by 'watching,'" said Ditzy, "you mean 'glaring daggers at.'"
"The point," Blue said, "is that I was paying attention. Every band had one, maybe two people who transformed. The only exception was Bulk Biceps. Beautiful violin piece, but no ears."
Pinkie perked up. "Ooh! Snips or Snails?"
The other girls traded awkward looks for a few moments until Raspberry spoke up. "They, uh, weren't invited."
"Aww." Pinkie pouted. "I thought they were mad dope."
"That's... very nice of you to say," said Raspberry.
"That changed with Flash Drive," said Blue. "They were the only band where every member transformed."
Pinkie tilted her head as she considered this. "What about Octavia?"
Ditzy frowned. "It seems that a solo act doesn't have quite the same cosmos-shattering potential as a group."
Pinkie blinked. "Huh?"
Blue shrugged. "I didn't see that part. Apparently, Ditzy's transformation comes with special eyes."
"And I'd won that second game just as Flash hit the first chorus. Then..." Ditzy trailed off and waved her hands about.
"I like charades," Pinkie said, frowning a little, "but I don't think telling the rest of the story that way will work well."
Ditzy shook her head. "Sorry, it's just... It's like I'm trying to describe a stoplight to a blind person in a language that has no concept of color. I can't even explain what I saw, much less what that means."
Pinkie shrugged. "So just tell us what it meant. It's not like you need to see to understand 'stop,' 'go,' and 'slow down.'"
"You're overextending the metaphor," said Ditzy.
Blue frowned at her. "Is she? If you know what it means, just say that."
Ditzy's mouth worked silently for a bit. "Oh. Well, I guess I can try." She thought about it for about a minute, Trixie and the Illusions finishing their song in the meantime. "Okay, so basically, the repeated magical incidents culminating in that full-band transformation forced the connection between our world and the magical one to widen. I think." Her eyes drifted, one seeming to look up in thought, the other pointing towards the ground. "That's what I got from the rapidly expanding iridescent hypersphere through which I glimpsed about a dozen instances of myself as a horse. Don't ask me how I got all that; I apparently have a sense for these things."
Pinkie beamed. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?" She crossed her arms. "Now there's really only one thing I don't understand."
"What?" asked Raspberry.
Pinkie pouted. "How come no one invited me? This must have been so much fun!"
"Yes, organizing an impromptu concert over the course of a few hours." Everyone turned to see a scowling Octavia and a grinning Vinyl Scratch approaching the table. "Simply delightful," concluded the former.
Vinyl just slammed a few stapled-together sheets of paper onto the table in front of Pinkie, crossed her arms, and beamed.
Pinkie perused the provided packet. It was a list of every performer from the Battle, excepting Snips and Snails, sorted by band. Every name had either a check mark or an X next to it. "Is this..." Pinkie looked to Vinyl, eyes wide. "This is a rundown of how everyone reacts to music! Whether they pony up or not!"
Vinyl nodded and gave her a thumbs up.
"I can't say I'm fond of your term for the process," added Octavia, "but yes. After Vinyl and I declined your request, we decided we could help in another way."
"And you totally did!" Pinkie sprang off the bench, put an arm around each organizer, and squeezed.
"Er. Yes. Um..." Octavia's gaze darted about. Vinyl just flailed and pounded on Pinkie's back. "Yes," said Octavia, her voice getting progressively more strained. "I think that's rather enough hugging!"
"Okay!" Pinkie released them. She gave them a few seconds of recovery time, then said, "Now, you two have already been super-mega-ultra-helpful, but could I ask for just one more teensy little favor?"
Vinyl and Octavia traded a look. "It depends on what the favor is," said Octavia.
"Can I get a ride back to CHS? I'm definitely not going to be able to go back the way I came."
Vinyl nodded, but Octavia still looked unsure. "We came in Vinyl's car, and that only seats two."
Pinkie waved it off. "Don't worry, we'll figure out something."
Octavia looked Pinkie over from head to toe. "Given your track record, I dare say we will."
"Hold it!"
Once again, Twilight and Sunset stood side by side to present their findings. Unlike last time, they had been exposed to far less raw, unfocused magic. Still some, largely thanks to Rainbow Dash, but far less.
"So, we have good news and bad news," said Sunset.
"Can we fix this now?" asked Dash.
Fluttershy cringed a little. "Is it too far gone?"
Sunset shook her head. "The answer to both is 'not yet.' The good news is that the readings are largely what I expected for healthy ponies. If the situation does get worse, it will because it's spreading, not because we'd be bursting with more magic than our bodies could handle."
Rarity ran her fingers through some of her extra hair. "Does that also mean we won't have any more unannounced alterations?"
Sunset bit her lip. "Uh, I... can't guarantee that. Our magic levels should be steady, but morphic flux may still be nonzero."
Rarity frowned. "The ears I can work with, but this much hair... Honestly, what else is there?"
"The good news there," said Sunset, "is that one way or another, the problem will have been resolved before we find out."
"In other words," said Mr. Discord, "either we'll have saved the world, or you'll be too dead to care."
Rarity managed to pale. "How... reassuring."
Mr. Discord grinned. "I try."
"The bad news," said Twilight, "is that the readings were largely what Sunstorm—"
"Sunset," said Sunset.
"What Sunset expected. There was a consistent deviation in the waveform patterns across all subjects, and it corresponds with an amplified version of the control."
Mr. Discord gasped. Everyone else looked blank. Applejack said, "Wanna run that by us again?"
Twilight swallowed. "Well, in so many words, we, uh, we found evidence of human magic."
"You what!?" Mr. Discord tugged at his hair.
"We checked several times, sir," said Twilight. "Um, sorry?"
Mr. Discord buried his face in his hands. "What were you even using to get these readings?"
"An unsightly kludge of four different medical scanners and an emission spectrometer," said Twilight.
Sunset raised a hand and grimaced. After a few moments, a green aura formed around her fingers. She released her focus with a gasp and said, "Along with a little unicorn magic to make everything cooperate."
Mr. Discord began to shake, giving the occasional stifled gasp.
Fluttershy patted him on the shoulder, taking to the air to reach it more easily. "There, there, Mr. Discord. It's okay."
The gasps became clearer. "Heh. Heh heh. Heh heh heh ha ha ha HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!" Mr. Discord let out a breath. "Oh, I needed that." He smiled at Fluttershy, who was now the only other person who wasn't pressed up against a wall. "Your sympathy is appreciated, dear Fluttershy, but unnecessary. For all of the money I've made off of the alleged magiclessness of our world, I have always wanted to be wrong about it. Just like I told you." He panned a glare about the room. "Because no one else listened."
Rarity cleared her throat. "So, what do we do with this information?"
"I've determined everything I can on the pony magic front. Now?" Sunset clenched a fist as she gazed at the heavens. "Now we need to learn everything we can about human magic."
"And how do you propose we do that?" asked Rarity.
Without shifting her pose, Sunset said, "I have no idea."
Trixie stomped towards Pinkie and company, now in the closest she came to street clothes, clutching her guitar case in a white-knuckle grip, and flanked by Fuchsia Blush and Lavender Lace. "The Great and Powerful Trixie demands an explanation and an apology."
Pinkie rose from the table and curtsied. "The Fun and Delighted Pinkie Pie wishes to apologize to the Great and Powerful Trixie for interrupting her performance and her assured ascension to a higher, greater, and more powerful state of being."
Everyone boggled at her for a few moments, Trixie included. "Um... Thanks?" Trixie shook herself. "I mean, Trixie still wishes to know why you interrupted not just the performance of the Illusions, but the glorious finale of this whole event."
"How you did it would also be nice," added Lavender.
"Don't be ridiculous," Trixie scoffed. "You can't just ask a magician to reveal her tricks, not even one such as her."
"And it is Pinkie Pie," noted Fuchsia. "Do you really want to know?"
"But to transcend time and space, to wander the higher realms..." Lavender paused, took in Pinkie Pie, and paled. "Fuchsia's right. You don't have to tell me."
"I'm surprised that you agreed to go last," said Pinkie.
Trixie drew herself up and pointed her nose to the sky. "The Great and Magnanimous Trixie knew that any band that followed the Illusions would pale before the glory of our performance."
"Vinyl arranged everything based on how well bands did in the battle," said Fuchsia Blush. "The better you did, the later you went."
Vinyl nodded.
"That's what Trixie said," said Trixie.
Fuchsia smirked. "Lavender and I had to drag her off the stage kicking and screaming when she found out we'd have to go last."
Vinyl cleared her throat and clacked her teeth together a few times.
"Right, and biting. Kicking, screaming, and biting."
Trixie glared at Fuchsia. "Why does Trixie permit you to spend time in her presence?"
Fuchsia shrugged. "Someone has to keep you and Lavender tethered to reality."
"Weren't you the one who was saying that the horse-angel thing was a massive hoax after the Fall Formal?" said Lavender.
Fuchsia blushed. "It's not my fault if the world's getting weirder."
"Actually, that's why I came here," said Pinkie. "Ditzy said she could tell us why we'd all ponied up on a permanent basis."
"Well, I didn't know the Rainbooms were stuck with the ears," said Ditzy, "but I figured they could use what I had to tell them."
Trixie tapped her foot for a moment. "Very well. Trixie can appreciate an investigation into the nature of the arcane, and she supposes that a neophyte in the deeper mysteries of the world could produce some unfortunate accidents. But intrude on Trixie's performance again, and there will be a reckoning." There was a puff of smoke, and all three Illusions had vanished.
Pinkie gasped. "They're gone!"
"Actually, we're right behind you."
"Fuchsia!"
Fuchsia burst into laughter. "I couldn't help it! The look on her face when she turned around!" She kept laughing even as the Illusions left.
Octavia rolled her eyes. "I believe you requested a ride?"
Pinkie nodded. "Thanks again!" As she followed Octavia and Vinyl she waved and shouted goodbye to everyone else.
Everyone but the one who sulked in one of the bushes, watching through slit-pupiled eyes.
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Human magic? Now things are getting even more interesting!
Oh, goody. Things are just going to get crazier.
First: Yeah to more people learning about their Impending Cosmic Annihilation! Their reactions amuse me. Also Mr. Discord is truly a fun character.
Probably not what they had in mind, but eh beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to the socially awkward. Besides it worked for Pony Twilight when Nightmare Moon got loose.
So was this gravity's way of getting back at Dash for mocking it?
Trixie should get tips from Pinkie.
Considering Sunset's previous comment about Flash's lack of spatial awareness and the fact he apparently smacked into fog once… this isn't really that surprising.
Is Flash Drive really that bad or does Ditzy's group just have different tastes in music?
Dun-dun-duuun!!!
Well that can't be good.
Human Pinkie is getting pony-Pinkie's magic? Good bye, sanity!
(And of course she exits via a magician's hat. Of course.)
I love the mention of EqG-world LotR, and the idea that Saruman was young Discord's favorite. Very fitting!
As for the ending... Sombra, or Chrysalis, or something else entirely? Hopefully not Opal who's feeling cranky because Rarity isn't spending enough time pampering her!
Just like the Donkey Kong musical numbers. Good job brain.
Sunset isn't blue, but her line at the beginning of this chapter immediately made me think of Guardian Bob, and I thought to myself, "well, things might be very bad, but at least they aren't 'not good'." (Bob will describe any given dangerous or unfortunate situation as "very very bad", but only says "This is not good" when things are truly dire.)
6436301 Great. Now you've got me having her punch her hand and snarl "MEGABYTE!"
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw9394_small.jpg
Seriously, not that I don't appreciate your attempt to bring cartoon physics to our own universe, but given that we've already established that pouring in magic from another dimension might just reduce the whole thing to subatomic ashes ...
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A little from column A, a little from column B. Flash is a much better guitarist than songwriter.
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The magician's hat was the funniest possible exit, and thus the best one according to the Pink Path. (And no, the Pink Path will not culminate in Pinkie's daughter turning herself into a half-cake God-Empress of Mankind.)
It's a lot of fun blending the real world and Equestria, and the EG world offers a perfect setting to do that sort of thing.
And I can guarantee that that isn't Opal.
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Good news: No one's going to be dropping games on Canterlot.
Bad news: If worse comes to worse, Sunset can't hope that the User reboots the universe.
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The incident in question happened more than ten years ago. I'd say we're safe. Or the exponential function is still in a very shallow part of its growth. In either case, this is one reason why I think of Derpy as my spirit animal.
6437695 It's a good thing there are no incoming games. Imagine the havoc if one landed on the Principal's Office! …sorry, sometimes The Pun becomes too strong to resist. And now I want to suggest that the head instructor for Computer Science and Electronics Shop is Mr. Discord's sister, Ms. Hexadecimal. Somewhat infamous for introducing several classes to computer security by guiding them through performing "unsolicited penetration testing", and her favourite response to questions that start with "what would happen if" is "why don't you try it and see?"
Sunset, you hardly have the time to spare for panicking at the start of every chapter.
That's not a bad point.
Ooooo. I had a feeling that Twilight was going to be a useful addition to this effort, but this is definitely more than I expected.
Based on the Friendship Games clips I just watched, they aren't wrong about that.
Oh my god, Pinkie has access to the pinkest path.
I don't know what that is, but it sounds terrifying.
Edit: Reading the comments, it's even more terrifying now that I do know what it is.
I dunno, that's kind of a catchy title.
So, all contest long people where transforming into human/pony hybrids, and nobody stopped performing? It's clearly dangerous to become too used to magic doing weird magical things, you shrug off too much as normal that really really isn't.
Oooooo, that's also pretty useful. But, at the same time, I'm somewhat judgmental of how good an idea it is to experiment until the world breaks slightly worse, and then to keep experimenting.
Human magic?
Now that seems like a leading scene break.
Though speaking of which, to dispense some actual criticism for once, I'm having a really hard time telling the scene breaks apart without some sort of extra line break in there.
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Sunset's freakouts are becoming something of a theme, aren't they? Unintentional, but kind of funny.
Again, Pinkie's daughter will very definitely not be blending her family line with the Bene Gesserit.
It's a fine balance. If they don't experiment, they'll have no idea what to do, but plenty of time to wallow in their ignorance. If they experiment too much, they'll have all the data they could ask for and no time in which to use it.
As for the scene breaks, I have been using the [ hr ] tag. I suppose the lines are a little light, though...
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Oh, well that's interesting. I run with the Medium Light formatting option, and apparently it makes the background the exact same color as the [ hr ]s, both are set to RGB #ddd,
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I can see why that would be confusing. Darn it, Fimfiction. Well, let's adjust that. It may take a while to get every story, but I can at least adjust this one right now.
6441715 I sent a bug report PM to Xaquseg, so there's a mild chance they'll fix it on the backend with no work required on your end. I'd wait a little while before putting any work into fixing this, it might not be needed long-term.
I'm so glad you kept the Bubblegum/Cotton Candy line for this story: it just seems to fit the setting.
I love the background characters adding to the solving of the mystery, makes everyone seem like a tight-knit clan
The plot thickens.....please tell me that that isn't Nightmare Moon in the bushes 
6437695 No, the DK rap is fine. I'm talking about THR musical numbers from the TV series.
Okay, so I'm thinking that they need to drag Trixie over to the
Enrichment CentreNAHTI and plug her into as many machines as possible.I got the impression from Friendship Games that Crystal Prep is the recruiting end of a major military intelligence / defense research agency, if that strange little scene with Shining Armor meant what I think it did. And I get the impression from all the EG movies that Canterlot High School is a front for something like a lower-powered version of Professor Xavier's school. Am I wrong?
I can so see a sane Discord having sympathy for Saruman.
Oh, you did like my versions of Lavender and Fuschia!
Thank you so much for crediting me!
What you did there. I see it. You bad, bad man.
There we go, I finally bugged Xaquseg about the [ hr ] issue in the right setting, and it has been fixed.
Also, I really need to get to the rest of this, I'll move it up on my priority list.
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Good to hear. And feel free to comment! Honestly, I'm a little disappointed by this story's lukewarm reception.
Loved it, good work.
PPPFFFFFFBWAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!
(Also: heeehheheh
Poor Trixie, she does not get enough respect.
Links break immersion. Immersion is important.
Don't put links in stories. That breaks immersion. And that's bad.
I rather like how most of the characters are completely prepared to handle the world getting really weird, either through experience or sheer force of personality.
This is copying someone else's comment but...
"As if being told that you're funny is an insult, eh? Ha ha! Take a space."
You need to go to the corner and think about what you've done.
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Isn’t that how this story was made?
This my friends is what we call bullying
She is literally dead white.
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Hence "managed to." Also, if we want to be Mudbriar levels of technical, the hex code for Rarity's skin is #F0F2F2. It's not much, but there's still a little room for further whitening.
... Equine Pinkie and Paul Atreides?
"Black Enemy" is an interesting choice for not!Sauron, given that it's a direct translation of his master Morgoth's name.
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Unless you're friends with the person; then it's somehow just teasing.
Catch 22
Rereading, and uh, WGPT? The Maryland public radio station? I'm confused.
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Great and Powerful Trixie. Though given that I put human Canterlot in the equivalent of California, it really should be KGPT.
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Ah, that makes much more sense, thanks.
How did that happen!?!?
Which I have so many questions about.
It would be a recipe for disaster!
Doesn't she mean French?
Pony derpy, not a horse.
Of course she'd bring that up.
Score!
https://m.Huh?